The North Carolina Tar Heels are set to hire a new head coach for their basketball program. Former Tar Heels player/ Assistant Coach Hubert Davis is the man for the job.
According to newsobserver.com
UNC has hired Hubert Davis as its next men’s basketball coach
The News & Observer was first to report the news Monday, and the school confirmed it in the afternoon after the UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted to approve his employment agreement.
Davis, 50, who played for legendary coach Dean Smith from 1988-92, has spent the past nine seasons as an assistant coach under outgoing head coach Roy Williams. He will be the first Black head coach in the history of the program.
“I am honored and humbled to be given the opportunity to lead this program,’’ Davis said in a statement released by UNC. “I would not be here without Coach Dean Smith, Coach Bill Guthridge and Coach Roy Williams; they taught me so much – and I’m eager to walk their path in my shoes and with my personality.”
Terms of his contract will be released at a later date, according to UNC.
Davis played in the NBA 12 seasons and got his first taste of coaching in 2004 as a Dallas Mavericks player development coach.
Davis worked for ESPN for seven years as a college basketball analyst. But when Williams had a position to fill, he handpicked Davis to join his staff despite never having coached in college.
Davis does not have any prior head coaching experience on the Division I level. However, he was essentially groomed in a similar way that Williams once learned as an assistant under Smith. Williams tapped Davis to coach UNC’s junior varsity team as a way to get used to making decisions as a head coach in real time.
“Hubert Davis is the best leader we can possibly have for our men’s basketball program,” UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham said in a statement. “He teaches student-athletes on and off the court. He inspires his fellow staff members. He is strongly committed to family. He has a tenacious, burning desire to be the best he can possibly be; we witnessed that when he was a player, a broadcaster and an assistant coach – and I have no doubt he will ensure than our student-athletes and program will be the best they can be, as well.”
Bubba Cunningham interviewed at least eight candidates over the weekend, including two who did not play at Carolina: Current assistant coach Steve Robinson worked on Williams’ staff at Kansas and UNC for a combined 26 years; He also spent seven years as a head coach at Tulsa and Florida State. Stanford coach Jerod Haase, who played for Williams at KU, served as an assistant coach at UNC from 2003-09.
To ensure Davis has the support he needs as a new coach, there will be an emphasis on constructing his new staff. Cunningham has asked some of the former players with coaching experience about their interest in serving a supporting role. Others like George Lynch, Davis’ former teammate and a member of the 1993 national championship team, have reached out expressing their interest. Lynch was the head coach at Division II Clark-Atlanta University and also had served two stints on the staff at SMU during the tenures of former Tar Heels’ Matt Doherty and later Larry Brown.
Williams retired after 18 seasons at Carolina and 33 seasons total as a head coach. Williams leaves behind, arguably, as big a shadow as Smith did. He led the Tar Heels to national titles in 2005, 2009 and 2017 before revealing at his retirement press conference that he no longer felt he was “the right man for the job.”
As Davis begins his tenure to prove that he is, he does have at least one trait in common with Williams. They both revere their time at UNC.
“I played here, I earned my degree here, I fell in love with my wife here, I got married here,” Davis said. “I moved here after I retired from the NBA and I have raised my family here. I am proud to lead this team, and I can’t wait for all that comes next.”
Congratulations to Hubert Davis!
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